Municipal Planning Research Articles

Sending a message to the top: the influence of service delivery protests on service delivery planning in South African municipalities

Sending a message to the top: the influence of service delivery protests on service delivery planning in South African municipalities

Different forms of innovation leadership in the strategic planning of municipalities in the structurally affected regions of Czechia

This paper examines different forms of leadership in strategic planning in structurally affected regions of Czechia. Based on the leadership concepts and strategic planning in municipalities, evaluates different leadership approaches according to the population size of municipalities and the stability/continuity of municipal representatives. Four types of leaders were identified, with entrepreneurial leadership being the most important in all examined regions. The dependence of the types of leadership on the stability/ continuity of government in strategic planning was revealed, while, the dependence on the population size of municipalities was no. The importance of entrepreneurial leadership increases with the increasing number of electoral cycles elected leaders remain in office.

Municipal Plan for Integrated Solid Waste Management (MPI-SWM) in the state of Piauí: A portrait of Coastal Cities

The PMGIRS is an important instrument of the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS) that articulates the management of municipal waste with the state plan and the latter, in turn, dialogues with the national plan. It is through the evaluation of the PMGIRS that the municipal manager detects whether the plan meets the requirements of the PNRS and which local actions (municipal scope) have been successful towards the goals of the municipal plan. The objective was to evaluate the PMGIRS of the coastal cities of Piauí, according to what the PNRS prescribes. To meet the objective, we used the instrument for this purpose, which is composed of twenty-one indicators and four indices. The indicators of the municipalities were mostly evaluated as bad and with rates below the recommended by the literature. In general, the instrument's indicators point to the difficulty of municipalities in complying with what the PNRS recommends. The study brings theoretical and managerial contributions. In the theoretical field, it broadens the understanding of the situation of coastal municipalities, part of the tourist route made up of three states, belonging to an environmental protection area, located in the northeast of Brazil, in relation to the local management of their waste. In the managerial field, the findings serve as a subsidy for the PMGIRS review and as an indicator, at the state level, for the formulation of actions that mobilize managers to prepare the local plan and/or encourage them to create intermunicipal consortia with a focus on the destination adequate waste.
 Keywords: Waste. Cities. National Solid Waste Policy.

Studying the spatio-temporal changes of urban green space: A case study of Pokhara Metropolitan City

Green space refers to land areas covered primarily with vegetation, including parks, gardens, nature reserves, and other similar areas. These spaces offer various benefits such as supporting biodiversity, enhancing air and water quality, promoting mental and physical well-being, providing opportunities for recreation and social interaction, and improving the overall beauty of the environment. To assess the dynamics of green space in Pokhara Metropolitan City (PMC), maximum likelihood classification and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) methods were utilized to analyze satellite imagery. The study showed two distinct patterns of urban green space, with the green space in the central city gradually decreasing, while the nearby suburban and remote areas of PMC experienced an increase as agricultural land was transformed into grassland due to population migration. Consequently, the area of moderately healthy vegetation increased, while healthy vegetation decreased from 4926 hectares (10.61% of total area) to 2535 hectares (5.46% of total area). Additionally, the area of no vegetation such as urban areas increased from 1.8% to 2.17%. An accuracy assessment was used to validate the analyzed data, resulting in an overall accuracy of 81.91% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.63. The primary factors contributing to the loss of green spaces were urban growth and population growth within the inner metropolis. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain PMC's green areas and give more attention to this issue while developing municipal plans and policies in the future.

Spatial planning as a tool of flood risk management in rural landscapes? Position, limitations, and other findings: The case of Myjava Region (Slovakia)

Abstract In the context of flood risk management, the application of spatial planning is challenging. This article specifies the position of spatial planning in the context of flood risk management in Slovakia. Through a case study, it assesses the potential of municipal spatial plans to reduce flood risk in rural landscapes. The analysis of municipal spatial plans includes the following aspects: the legislative framework, the actionability of spatial plans and the competences of municipalities. The results showed that in terms of key aspects of flood risk management in the rural landscape, i.e. reducing flood risk through the application of eco-stabilisation measures and reducing the negative consequences of floods through the functional and spatial arrangement of the rural landscape, spatial plans have the status of a formal document. There are several reasons for this. The first one is centralised governance of flood risk. The second reason is the flood risk policy where protection by the technical infrastructure is dominant. The third reason is inconsistent use of municipal powers to reduce flood risk based on a spatial plan. The expectation that the municipalities’ spatial plans could contribute to effective flood risk management in the rural landscape thus remains a challenge.

The Integrated Development Planning Process's Impact as a Tool for Increasing Community Participation in South Africa

The South African Municipal Systems Act of 2003 and the 1996 Constitution encourage community-based organisations (CBOs) and communities to actively participate in the municipal planning process. It is significant for CBOs and communities to be engaged in drafting the Integrated Development Plan (hereafter IDP) to guarantee that the municipality considers their expectations and needs in the final IDP document. Thus, this article intends to determine the impact of the IDP process on increasing community participation using the Tzaneen municipal areas under the jurisdiction of GTM as a case study. It is argued that the design and implementation of the IDP process are confronted with many contemporary challenges. To comprehend the challenges, the study has adopted a mixed-method research approach. Using probability and non-probability selection approaches, 410 participants were selected from the Tzaneen municipal areas in South Africa. The data was collected and analysed until saturation was reached. The researchers used an online structured questionnaire and face-to-face semi-structured interviews to collect empirical data and review the existing literature. The study found a continuous lack of community participation in municipal affairs. The service delivery backlog is still challenging despite constitutional mandates and democratic principles. The participants indicated that they are unable to hold municipal officials accountable. Lastly, there needs to be more political will to partake in the IDP process. Based on the above, this study recommends that municipal policies should be influenced by community involvement. The study also recommends that the Greater Tzaneen Municipality's officials and politicians should at all times uphold democratic principles by ensuring active public participation, transparency, and accountable governance.

Preliminary Research on Tourism Landscape Planning in Nanchang River Section from the Third Space Perspective

In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on the Three Mountains and Five Gardens scenic area in Haidian District, Beijing. While prioritizing the preservation of cultural heritage sites, efforts have been made to enhance green landscapes and ecological governance. However, the landscape of the Yangtze River water body, surrounding greenery, and overall promotion within the Three Mountains and Five Gardens area have remained limited to improvements within individual parks. Building upon the "Overall Protection Plan of Three Mountains and Five Parks Area (2019-2035)" organized by the Beijing Municipal Planning Commission and the Haidian District People's Government, this paper aims to explore and address the current issues in the tourism landscape planning of the Nanchang River section. These issues include insufficient landscape promotion, transportation inconveniences, and a lack of diverse tourism offerings. In the research context of "Building Beijing's 'Third Space' in the Three Mountains and Five Parks Area," corresponding solutions and comparative advantages will be proposed. Ultimately, a preliminary concept for an in-depth and feasible overall planning of the Nanchang River section will be presented.

A Knowledge-Based Engineering System for the Planning of Networked Rainwater Harvesting and Distribution Systems

Rainwater harvesting attracts growing interest from the field of municipal planning. When considering a rainwater harvesting system as a design object, questions include whether the system is designed for a single property or for a local water network serving multiple properties, what allows for the inclusion of buffer tanks and resource balancing among participants in the network, how to size the tanks, and how robust the system is in the face of changing demands. Knowledge-based engineering provides methods and a tool set for such planning objects. For this article, the authors applied techniques based on model-based and resource-based configuration and Bayesian decision networks to propose a knowledge-based engineering system for residential, networked rainwater harvesting and distribution systems. This enables designers to investigate the effects of different catchment areas, adjust or minimize the storage tank sizes in the grid and evaluate their effect on the individual harvest and the exchange with a central network buffer, evaluate the demands within a neighborhood based on a detailed consumer model also over time, and test the sensitivities of the single sinks and sources to the water grid. For urban planners, this offers the possibility, for example, to make design obligations for housing construction or for the refurbishment of settlements.

Characteristics of Riobamba's household solid waste generation and the benefits of source separation

The generation of urban waste represents a problem for cities, so quantifying and analyzing its generation is fundamental for municipal planning. To obtain these data, a study was conducted in Riobamba, forty households were selected, and data were collected, phase I determined the composition of the waste based on the quartering methodology, in phase II a pilot source sepa-ration program was implemented and quantified, with the data obtained estimates were made according to different percentages of recovery of materials compared to the extension of the useful life of the landfill. The result showed that the generation rate per capita was 0.71 kg/person/day, translated into about 200 tons of waste generated per day in Riobamba city. In terms of compo-sition, the fraction of organic waste constitutes the largest proportion in the two phases with percentages of 60% and 73%, recyclables 20% and 12% and disposable 20% and 15%, which indicates that in the phase of separation at the source, the families created more awareness about the gen-eration of waste, so it is important to implement management practices to reduce the waste volume to a final disposal which will contribute to extend the useful landfill life up to 27 years.

Culture practices and market distribution of mud crab in Santa Teresita, Cagayan, Philippines

This research assessed mud crab culture practices and market distribution in Santa Teresita, Cagayan, Philippines- one of the crab culture municipalities in the province. A total of 80 mud crab key stakeholders (grow-out farmers, fatteners, dealers, retailers, and peddlers) were interviewed to gather data. The results showed that most of the mud crab farmers were male (70 %), while traders were dominantly female (97.5 %). Among the 40 mud crab farmers, 82.5 % were involved in grow-out (poly and monoculture), while 17.5 % were involved in fattening. The respondents revealed that the constraints hindering the sustainability of mud crab culture in the area included: intra-species cannibalism, flooding, limited knowledge in crab farming, and inconsistent supply of quality crab seeds. There were 6 different marketing chains identified in the area, involving different stakeholders, with Crab Farmer-Retailer-Consumer being the most common distribution pattern. The results of this research are good input for the development of a municipal mud crab management plan. Highlights Mudcrab culture is one of the economic activities that benefits both men and women in the area Several techniques and strategies in mudcrab culture were employed in the area but still challenged with several constraints Five major actors (i.e. farmers, fatteners, dealers, retailers and peddlers) were identified to have major roles in mudcrab industry in the area Different marketing chains from farmer to consumer were observed in the area

Motivations, procedures and stated values for municipal flood plans: experiences from Central Europe

ABSTRACT Municipal flood plans represent the lowest administrative planning instrument for flood risk management. Their value for local representatives in coping with floods remains unclear, however. We present a survey of municipal flood plans among 356 municipal representatives in Czechia. Our results indicate that legal and financial incentives are key motivations for adopting the plans; there is a rather weak collaborative effort from private companies when preparing the plans; and the trust in value of the plans is rather low. This calls for stronger integration of local and national expectations regarding flood planning instruments and for new frameworks of their assessment.

Application of a sustainable destination framework to model Mexican heritage destination resilience in times of crisis

The article discusses World Heritage Site Guanajuato, Mexico, a mature destination which suffers sustainability issues concerning water provision, traffic congestion, and refuse collection, the result of chaotic urban growth. Stagnating visitor numbers indicates ageing social infrastructure, dated tourism products, and reputational damage of public insecurity. The research objective is to improve municipal planning by using a resilience framework from the tourism ecology literature to encourage sustainable development. It integrates the results of a 2021 survey of local tourism business opinion and finds Guanajuato’s multi-business owners are innovative in crisis, reacting to covid-19 with changes to their products and services. Federal and State government hardly responded. It should widen membership of the municipal Tourist Board and incorporate project evaluators within the local Planning Office to apply a resilience model to address environmental, infrastructural, and tourism challenges.

Size matters: action space for sustainability transition among planners in Swedish municipalities

ABSTRACT We analyse the action space for strategic planning and sustainability transition among planners in Swedish municipalities. We use qualitative and quantitative materials from 103 survey responses obtained from Swedish municipal planners. Our analysis shows that the size and type (e.g. population and density) of the municipality where the planners work are connected to their perceived action space, where policies for densely populated cities are less relevant for rural municipalities. Even if size matters for the action space for sustainability transition, this action space can be modified (e.g. access to resources and participation in networks) and continuously constructed.

Effects of Urban Planning on Ecosystem Services: The Umbria Region Seismic Crater

The earthquake in central Italy in 2016 led to a profound urban and natural landscape transformation. The role of territorial planning in this kind of situation is extremely important because it allows the orientation of future settlement choices through appropriate interpretative keys of the existing territorial dynamics. This work aims to analyze the effects of the planning choices made in the post-earthquake period in the seismic crater municipalities of the Umbria region. Using the InVEST models, these studies regard the comparison of the effects of in-force plans on ecosystem services such as habitat quality and carbon storage. The data about the mosaic of the municipal urban planning tools are derived from specific actions produced under two LIFE projects (SUNLIFE and IMAGINE). The comparison makes it possible to identify how and to what extent the transformative scenarios, linked to the new condition, change the spatial planning compared to the previous one and the effects on the provision of ecosystem services. The knowledge of the latter aspect allows optimization of the methods of urban transformation that will be implemented. Moreover, this process of optimizing the provision of essential ecosystem services could certainly play a key role in the enhancement and economic recovery of these areas.

Goal achievement in municipal strategic planning: The role of executives' background and political context

AbstractStrategic planning has been increasingly used by local governments worldwide to boost performance. While this can be seen as a technical and political process, the relationship between managerial qualifications, political context and achievement of strategic goals in local governments has been scarcely studied. This study explores these relationships using data from 137 Colombian municipalities at the middle and end of the 2016–2019 mayoral term. Findings suggest that midterm strategic goal achievement is associated with mayoral experience, particularly in the national government where the tradition of strategic planning is better established, and this relationship increases with higher levels of municipal council support. Certain traits of the chief planning officer, appointed by the mayor, also correlate positively with midterm goal achievement. End‐term goal achievement is mainly associated with midterm paths. This research contributes to the performance management literature by highlighting the political‐managerial interplay in strategic goal achievement.

Gestão estadual da atenção primária à saúde em resposta à COVID-19 na Bahia, Brasil

Abstract This is an analysis of state management of Primary Health Care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Bahia. It is a qualitative case study with interviews with managers and regulatory documents analyzed according to the categories of government project and government capacity. State PHC proposals were debated in the Bipartite Intermanagerial Commission and in the Public Health Operational Emergency Committee. The scope of the PHC project focused on the definition of specific actions to manage the health crisis with the municipalities. The institutional support of the state to the municipalities modulated inter-federative relations and was decisive in the elaboration of municipal contingency plans, training of teams and production and dissemination of technical standards. The capacity of the state government was dependent upon the degree of municipal autonomy and the availability of state technical references in the regions. The state strengthened institutional partnerships for dialogue with municipal managers, but mechanisms for articulation with the federal level and social control were not identified. This study contributes to the analysis of the role of states in the formulation and implementation of PHC actions mediated by inter-federative relationships in emergency public health contexts.

GPS Tracking Data on Marginalised Citizens’ Spatial Patterns: Towards Inclusive Urban Planning

Knowledge about how marginalised citizens use urban spaces is hard to access and apply in urban planning and policy. Based on current debates around “smart cities” and “smart governance,” the City of Odense, in Denmark, has tested the integration of “smart engagement” by means of GPS-tracking techniques into the municipality’s cross-sectoral strategy for an “inclusive city.” In a period of austerity, cities have the incentive to optimise public services. Hence, GPS-tracking data was produced by 64 marginalised citizens, resulting in a data inventory covering three weeks of spatial behaviour. First, this article shows how these GPS-tracking data were processed into maps without revealing person-sensitive spatial patterns. Secondly, the article explores whether such maps and the GPS-tracking techniques that underpin them are considered valid, relevant, and applicable to urban planning from the perspectives of marginalised citizens, their representatives, and municipal planners and professionals respectively. The GPS project showed shortcomings as regards the quality of the data inventory and the representativity of the mapped behaviour, which made them inapplicable for optimising dedicated public service. However, the article also finds that the GPS-based maps succeeded in being non-person sensitive and in providing a valuable platform for citizen-centric dialogues with marginalised citizens with the potential for raising awareness and increasing knowledge about this citizen group’s living conditions and urban lives. An important derived effect of the project is that it has ensured ongoing cross-sectoral collaboration among a range of professional stakeholders, imperative for ensuring creating greater equity in urban planning.

Urban Planning vs. Agricultural Production: A Study on the Po Valley

At a time when wars and pandemics have disrupted the world order and deeply damaged international agreements, more people are talking about the energy and food independence of the nation-states. It is clear that the achievement of these objectives will not be rapid, but it is also clear that land use must take account of these important aspects. The over-dimensioning of the settled areas presents illogically in almost all municipal urban planning plans regardless of their geographical location, demographic dynamics, and values of the administered territory; it certainly constitutes an obstacle to effective land use. The work presented here aims to analyze the effects on agricultural production of the transformations envisaged by the plans of the provinces of Modena and Reggio nell’Emilia, while also providing solutions that could promote the sustainability of the interventions planned in these areas of high agri-food value.

Closing the equity deficit: Sustainability justice in municipal climate action planning in Waterloo region.

There is growing recognition that often well-intended climate action solutions perpetuate and exacerbate manifestations of colonialism and racism due to the lack of equity and justice considerations in designing and implementing these solutions. There is limited research exploring why the integration of these considerations are lacking in municipal climate action planning. This exploratory descriptive qualitative study explored how municipal actors perceive and understand equity and justice in municipal climate action planning as a step toward addressing this issue. Semistructured interviews were conducted with seven members of the core management group from ClimateAction Waterloo region, and a template analysis of the interview data resulted in six themes. Findings suggested that those involved in municipal climate action planning understand and perceive justice and equity considerations as important to their work, however,translating this understanding to practice is a challenge due to structural (governmental and societal) and capacity (limited time, funding, resources, and knowledge) barriers. By better understanding how key actors consider justice and equity, we identify shifting colonial mental models as a potential pathway for transformative change given the central role of these actors.

Urban Parks on the Political Agenda of the Municipality of Sao Paulo-SP

Urban parks perform different and important functions in cities, providing numerous environmental benefits and improving the quality of life of the city population. Studies that address the value of urban parks, as well as discuss the relevance of municipal planning and public policies aimed at building environmentally healthy cities, are essential. These aspects justify the development of this study, which aimed to identify whether urban parks are part of the political agenda of the previous and current management of the Municipality of São Paulo/SP. For the development of the theoretical framework of this study, a systematic review was carried out in the ProQuest, Scielo, Scopus databases, in which articles published between 2010 and 2020 were sought. In order to identify whether urban parks are part of the political agenda of the previous and current management of the Municipality of São Paulo/SP, a documentary research was carried out, and for that the Government Plan and the Guidelines of the Government Plan of the current/re-elected management from the city of São Paulo were consulted. The data revealed the importance of urban parks for the maintenance of environmental quality in urban areas and for the quality of life of the population that resides and transits through cities. Furthermore, it showed that urban parks are part of the political agenda of the previous and current/re-elected management of the municipality of São Paulo. Thus, urban parks are among the themes to which municipal management has dedicated its attention and has been developing a set of alternative actions for the maintenance of parks.